dodge cup quotes from california

Sunday, May 2, 2004.
California Speedway.
Auto Club 500.

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) - Finished Third, Moved to 7th in
series standings. Ranked 25th in the standings after 10 races in 2003.

"The ALLTEL/Mobil One Dodge was pretty good all day. We struggled for
one run there, but Matt (crew chief Borland) and the guys did a good job
in the pits. We came out with a top five because of a little bit of fuel
strategy. It was a good finish for us. We had a really good car at the
start. I think the track changed a little bit and we had to catch up
with it. I think we were pretty conservative on fuel. We were all right
at the end, but you never know how it's going to work out sometimes.
Sometimes the driver uses a little too much, but you never know for sure
until it's over. We came away with a top five at a place we hadn't
finished in the top 10 before, so we're pretty happy with that."

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No.77 Kodak Easy Share Dodge) - Finished career-best
sixth, top Raybestos Rookie of the Year finisher.

"Anybody that wants to say that racecar drivers aren't athletes needs to
come see me. I played four years of college basketball, and thank you
John Thompson. These guys did a great job on pit road. The driver had to
apologize to them because he actually got a little bit tired today. I
burned myself up a little bit, but it's part of the sport. Each week
we're getting career-best finishes. That's the third in a row. We
finished sixth, top Raybestos Rookie and there's no place better to do
it than the west coast.

 

"Me and Mr. Penske are going to Rochester, N.Y., on Tuesday, so that's
good timing. We'll go up to Kodak headquarters and have a big party.
We're bringing them back to the front. I wish we could have got a top
five, I'm a greedy dude, but I've got to thank my boys. They never gave
up on me, and I drive hard for 'em, but I got a little tired today.

 

"It's hot in there. It's a tough sport. Nobody can make fun of anybody
first to 43rd today. These are professional athletes, and they prove it
each week out there.

 

"We're getting that good Dodge engineering. We've had 18 trips to the
wind tunnel. I've got two great teammates, Rusty and Ryan. Nice job by
Ryan Newman today. I had a good battle going with him today. It was fun
to race my teammate for a change. Our guys are pumped up and our
confidence is growing."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge) - Finished 8th in a backup Dodge

"We're real happy with that finish after crashing our primary car. The
guys did an unreal job getting that thing ready to go. The last time we
used this car was in the ARCA races we won last year. It wasn't a bad
car, and we were pretty happy with the body going into the race. We
weren't real happy with it at the end of practice, but I knew if we made
a couple of small changes and it helped us where we needed that we would
be all right. Jimmy (crew chief Elledge) did a great job tuning the car.
The guys did a good job preparing it and we had decent stops all day.
Our guys did a good job packing it with fuel on that last stop. We took
an extra second or two on pit road to make sure it was topped off. We
were close, but we made it."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

"It was a long, hot day at the office. We never got the car right. We
were playing catch up all day and we never got caught up."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge)

"It was a very good day. We were either tight or loose. It was a little
hot out there, but it was hot for everybody."

 

JEFF GREEN (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge)

"The motor vapor locked or something and miss after it got hot again.
After a couple of laps under caution it would run all right then it
would stop vapor locking. Then it blowed all to pieces. It's frustrating
when you've got a car that's capable of running up there and you can't
get up there and run with those guys. We showed it in qualifying (third)
and we showed it early in the race. We had a problem yesterday. The fuel
pressure was fluctuating. I guess it was trying to tell us something,
but we never got it fixed. It's (heat) not too bad. It all depends where
you are. If you're in the back it's hot. If you're out front, it's not
too bad."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"I'm not sure what happened out there.  We just got tight after that
last stop and that impacted our fuel mileage.  That's why we ran out of
gas.  I'm fine just a little burned, that's just part of racing on a hot
day.  It is disappointing.  We just got too tight after that final pit
stop.  I don't know why that was, but it killed the fuel mileage for the
Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge.  It got pretty hot in that car.  Our ice pack
burst and we kind of started boiling.  

 

"Once we win the first race, it will make it a lot easier to win the
second time.  We've put ourselves in position in a lot of races and have
come out short.  We would have run fourth today, and that's pretty
decent, but it didn't work out that way.  The track was good, but it was
hot.  We slid around a lot.  We were getting tighter and tighter, and on
that final adjustment we went to free the car up, but it got tighter.  

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"I had no idea we were running out of gas.  I just didn't know we were
that close.  I thought we were just barely going to make it.  Our Dodge
Dealers/UAW Dodge was good today, and we were on our way to a top-five
finish, but we just didn't make it.

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

"It's Stewart. I don't know what's wrong with the guy. I like the
fellow. He's a good friend. I don't know. He's really screwing up a lot
lately. He got me in the back really hard at Bristol. He got me in the
back at Martinsville. He caused a huge wreck last week at Talladega and
then he runs me right through the fence this time. I'm on the outside
right up against the wall and he comes flying up and drives through -
knocks the ball joint off, knocks the side off of it. He completely
ruins the car. Then he pulls up beside me and starts flipping me off on
the restart. I wanted to get out of the car and whip his rear end. The
kid needs to calm down a little bit. I don't know what's wrong with him.
He's really frustrated for some reason.

 

"I'm not sticking up for him right now. I'm about sick of his childish
actions. The boy  needs to grow up a little bit. He's frustrated I
guess, but he's got to keep his emotions in check. I'm tired of getting
taken out by him. It's ridiculous.

 

"I had a real good top 10 car. I don't know why he's driving like that
out there. He needs to get his act together. He's a good driver, and he
needs to act like it now instead of driving like an idiot and taking a
bunch of cars out. I'll talk to him. I'll talk to him right now. He
needs a good talking to by somebody. He needs to get his emotions in
check. He's a good kid, but I'm not respecting him at all right now and
half of the garage is not respecting him. He's going to have to get out
there and start earning the respect of his peers again. He's screwed up
a lot of good cars here because he's pouting.

 

"I don't know if he didn't see me or what, but he just drove right
through the side of my car and stuck it in the fence. I was right up
against the wall and he drove right through it. It tore me all to heck.
On the caution flag he starts flipping me off for some stupid reason. I
don't know what that's all about. The deal with Kurt Busch, he got up on
top and lost it and that's it. He got in the oil dry and got the car
sideways. I saw him coming. I tried to stay in the throttle and clear
him, but I couldn't clear him.

 

"We'll get the car fixed and get back out there. I don't know if we'll
gain any spots or not, but we're going to try real hard to gain four or
five if we can.

 

"I'm going to do a lot better job talking (to Stewart) than NASCAR will.
I think I can help him a lot more driver to driver. He's in a ditch
right now. He needs some help."